Ty is Five!

On Friday, Ty turned five!

He was so excited for his birthday, we were on the countdown for quite some time.

Now he tells me, "I can do that, cause I'm five!"

or

"I don't need that, cause I'm five!"

Do you need a better reason than that?

We of course had to have a #5 candle, that we had weeks in advance.

He requested a basketball cake.

That was something I could handle.

We were so lucky to have his cousins come up for his birthday.
Braden, Josh and Cody celebrated at Pirate Pizza with us.
The pirate made them a bit nervous, but we managed a picture.

Of course, a few presents, still sporting the pirate hat!

Ty, we love you SO much. You are an amazing kid with so many talents. We can't wait to see what you will do in life and the things you will accomplish. It blows me away that you are five! We are so proud of you and are so lucky to have you in our family!

Happy Halloween!!

Our little family had SO much fun this Halloween.

Full of traditions, fun, and of course, too much junk!

Here are our pumpkins. Brooke's is the little spider (thanks to Nicki for the great idea),

Ty's is the carved spider, Jordo's is the middle one, and the black cat was mine. I saw it in a magazine and thought it would be cute.

The boys came up with their ideas all on their own, including the nose in Jordo's.

We aren't typically a matchy-matchy family, but after a friend made these capes for the boys, it just seemed like a good idea to do one for Kev.

Like father, like son. They boys loved being just like Dad, and Kev was a great sport.

With all the darkness of vampires, we brightened things up with this cute fairy.
At ten months she is walking all over the place now. But with two brothers to keep up with, we knew it wouldn't take long.

Here are my three adorable kids!

I had to put this one on.

Brooke started to know the flash was coming and she would squint whenever the camera would come out. Little smartie-pants.

Happy Halloween! Bring on Thanksgiving and the holiday season!

Pumpkin time again!

Grandma and Grandpa took us, well definitely more for the kids, to the famous pumpkin patch again. Brookie loved climbing on the piles, the boys had a great time picking the 'perfect' pumpkin and riding in the wheelbarrow wasn't too bad either.

(sorry for the blur, someone doesn't hold still!)

We love fall, pumpkins and everything that comes with it! (except that snow is coming)

Finishing the Summer off Right

We went mini golfing!

We took advantage of the good weather and a Monday night and headed for fun.

We hadn't told the kids that Grandma and Grandpa were coming, so when we got to there and they saw them, they were thrilled.

Ty tried to figure out how we all ended up there at the same time!

Jordo thought it was a bit easier if he put his ball closer to the hole, and then he could just tap it in. It turned out to be a pretty good strategy.

Ty takes his golf very seriously.
He did just what his Dad did. He's a good little golfer and is ready for Kev to take him 'big golfing'.

Jordo was cracking us up with his attack on the game.
Always so expressive.

This would be Ty after his hole in one.

I guess his strategy paid off too!

Brookie loved being outside and if mini golf courses were cleaner, she could have gotten down and played a bit.

Nothing better than a summer evening phasing into fall.

Preschool Time!

Since Ty missed the deadline for kindergarten, we figured we needed to do some sort of preschool. Last year, we did a rotation with some other families in the neighborhood, but all those kids started school. So this year, it's up to me. I'm doing one with Ty and Jordo, very simple, but it gives us all a schedule and some good quality things to fill our Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Here are a few of the things we've done:

The boys love working in their little books. If only homework always stayed this fun.

For 'A' we did apple art. We cut shapes with apples and painted.

The boys love this kind of stuff, and this helps me to let them do it more.

Here's Jordo, quite focused.

For 'E' we went on and egg hunt. The kids thought I'd gone crazy since they know Easter doesn't come again until after Halloween and Christmas, but they didn't put up a fight either.

Jordo found one by the toothbrushes!

Ty's clue took him to the bookshelf.

Jordo loved the one that was hidden in the pumpkin candle.

Here they are with their eggs, eating their egg candy.

It's been a lot of fun for me to have some quality time with the boys while Brooke naps.

They are both so smart and it's fun to see and help them learn.

We'll see how letters F through Z go!